MP defends her direct pitch to principals

GILMORE MP Ann Sudmalis is defending her pitch to school principals to sign up to the Abbott government’s $70 million Independent Public Schools Plan (IPS).

GILMORE MP Ann Sudmalis is defending her pitch to school principals to
sign up to the Abbott government’s $70 million Independent Public Schools Plan
(IPS).

Mrs Sudmalis came under fire on Wednesday after being singled out in a
Sydney Morning Herald report for having sent emails to all the public school
principals in her electorate, encouraging them to join the plan.

Mrs Sudmalis said the IPS Plan simply provided schools with some
autonomy on how any possible funding they might receive is spent.

“They will still have the security of state government funding – they
will still be under the state government control,” she said.

“It allows schools to make more decisions for themselves. Take the BER
(Building the Education Revolution) funding, schools were given funding but
were told they were getting a hall; they had no say how that funding was spent.

“This will allow schools, if future funding becomes available and it
will in the long term, to be able to make decisions on spending that funding to
their best advantage.

“They get to choose where the money goes.

“It allows parents, teachers and principals to work together and
ultimately maximise the outcomes for the children.”

She said the federal government was simply inviting schools to
investigate the possibility of becoming an independent public school but any
negotiation had to be done through the NSW Education Department.

“We are not in opposition to the state government, we are an adjunct to
it,” she said.

She said $70 million had been set aside to assist parent groups to work
with principals and staff to investigate the possibility of becoming
independent public schools.

“They will not be breaking away from the public system, it is about
creating a more co-operative nature between parents and schools, making them
more empowered,” she said.

She said the proposal has had a quiet groundswell of support and schools
and parents would not be slugged with extra or a rise in fees.

“There will be no extra money for the schools or parents to pay,” she
said.

“They don’t become true independent schools.”

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said since coming to office in
2011 the government had introduced major reforms which increased local school
authority in public schools.

He said the Local Schools, Local Decisions reforms were introduced after
wide consultation with principals, teachers and school communities and schools
in NSW were already seeing the benefits of the reforms which shift
decision-making and responsibility to those best placed to know the needs of
students – the principals and their local school community.

Mrs Sudmalis said up until Wednesday there had been no formal
correspondence from the NSW Education Department to the federal department
rejecting the plan.